EA Announces Flips For The Nintendo DS

Are you a word-hungry tween currently residing in the UK?

…No?

Even if you don’t fall within the target demographic for EA’s recently announced Flips, we’re sure you can see the merit the fledgling franchise. EA has opted to turn the Nintendo DS into a Kindle knockoff by providing youth across the UK with digital copies of their favorite young adult novels. Working specifically with Egmont and Penguin Publishing, EA has already secured works from Cathy Cassidy, Eoin Colfer, Enid Blyton and the scribes behind the popular series for young boys, “To Ghoul for School.”

“Flips is a brilliant way of getting children into reading who may love their DS but may not normally pick up a book,” commented Cally Poplak, Director, Egmont Press. “At Egmont we are passionate about bringing stories to life for children, so the development of new platforms for reading are incredibly exciting for us. We are proud to be at the heart of this innovation and thrilled to be a part of this first collection bringing authors such as Enid Blyton to the digital world, and encouraging more children to take up reading for pleasure rather than seeing it purely as part of their homework.”

Novels given the digital treatment aren’t simple translations from printed to digital text. Flips will utilize the DS touch screen to embed text with links and let children interact with their books through quizzes and other challenges. The hope is that this small level of interactivity will engage the user and provide an incentive for them to keep turning the virtual page.

Providing a decent bang for your buck, each Flips title will be packaged with multiple books in the same series. What has EA nabbed so far?

• Enid Blyton (Egmont) - "The Enchanted Wood," "The Magic Faraway Tree," "The Folk of the Faraway Tree," "Enchanted World – Petal and the Eternal Bloom," "Enchanted World – Melody and the Enchanted Harp," "Enchanted World – Silky and the Rainbow Feather"
• Cathy Cassidy (Penguin)– "Scarlett," "Angel Cake," "Sundae Girl," "Shine on Daizy Star," "GingerSnaps," "Driftwood"
• Eoin Colfer (Penguin) - "Artemis Fowl," "Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident," "Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code," "Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception," "Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony," "Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox"
• Too Ghoul For School (Egmont) - "Silent but Deadly," "The In-Spectres Call," "Ghoul Dinners," "The Bubonic Builders," "Attack of the Zombie Nits," "School Spooks Day," "French Fright," "Terror In Cubical Four"

The four titles above will hit retail in the UK on December 4, 2009. No word yet if the bundles will make their way stateside, but we hope they do.

While Flips may not appeal to throngs of hardcore gamers, we’re not going to scoff at a product that fosters literacy and dispels the notion that reading is a chore. So kudos EA.